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Atheist Author Recognizes Global Faith Revival

ATHEIST AUTHOR RECOGNIZES

GLOBAL FAITH REVIVAL

As author Adrian Wooldridge travelled the world researching the impact religion is having. It struck him that religious observance is increasing worldwide, with the exception only of Europe.

“Something happened from the 1970s and now the world is again moving towards a faith revival” he said. The Jesus movement and Pentecostal/charismatic revivals of the 1960s and ’70s, may have had something to do with that. Pentecostalism, he concluded, will be the major form of 21st century Christianity. China, Guatemala, Nigeria, Kenya and various Latin American countries were the biggest hotspots.

“The sort of religion that is on the rise is the emotive, assertive charismatic religion,” he said. “It’s compelling Catholicism in Latin America to change. There’s a physical surprise when you go to Guatemala and see how vibrant the charismatic and Pentecostal movements are. It is the same thing in Lagos and Nairobi. I went into my research underestimating the power and vitality of religion.”

What also struck him were the 443,000 full-time Christian missionaries worldwide plus 1.6 million Christians a year who go on short-term missions. Wooldridge sees Christianity remaining the world’s largest religion.

Wooldridge a confessing atheist, said that he now had more respect, and felt more warmth towards religion. “This was partly because of the people I came across who were doing such amazing work to help the poor. But where are the atheists doing anything like that?”